I have recently been interested in becoming a referee after being injured playing, and to help me along my club allowed me to referee a friendly game between the 3rd and 4th teams.

The first thing I noticed is how many of the rules I don't know off the top of my head, it looks fairly easy when playing, but it definetly is not when in the middle.

One of the problems I had was I gave a penalty for hands in the ruck on the 5m line and the team took a quick penalty and took me over the tryline with them, I didn't know what to do so i awarded the try as I don't know if anything was actually in the rules to prevent this?

In the bar afterwards I was getting a little bit of stick over it, but some said it should have been a penalty reversed and others said there was nothing wrong with it, can someone please tell me the real line.

Also, what is the best way of learning all the rules? As I didn't realise how many I don't actually know.

Any help would be appreciated.

pricci

16-12-03, 17:12

I have recently been interested in becoming a referee after being injured playing, and to help me along my club allowed me to referee a friendly game between the 3rd and 4th teams.

The first thing I noticed is how many of the rules I don't know off the top of my head, it looks fairly easy when playing, but it definetly is not when in the middle.

One of the problems I had was I gave a penalty for hands in the ruck on the 5m line and the team took a quick penalty and took me over the tryline with them, I didn't know what to do so i awarded the try as I don't know if anything was actually in the rules to prevent this?

In the bar afterwards I was getting a little bit of stick over it, but some said it should have been a penalty reversed and others said there was nothing wrong with it, can someone please tell me the real line.

Also, what is the best way of learning all the rules? As I didn't realise how many I don't actually know.

Any help would be appreciated.
JLomey.

Nice one !

Lesson Number 1..................................LAWS NOT RULES !!!!!!!!

I would have given a 5M Scrum to the attacking side for running into me and gaining an advantage from doing so.

Buy a Law Book and start from page 1 is the obvious start. But, it is more fun if you get in touch with your local society and take the refereeing courses and exams.

www.rfu.com (http://www.rfu.com) will guide you to your local society contact point.

You will get an awful lot of help and assistance from experienced guys as well as from peers starting from scratch like yourself.

Even if you develop an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Laws, you will never be the finished article. But, you will be a lot more confident in your ability to rferee and make the tough calls....even the worng ones from time to time.

Robert Burns

17-12-03, 23:12

ha ha, did I laugh!

I think everyone has those sort of problems on their first ever game, and you do suddently realise that the refs job isn't as easy as it looks.

Yeah, got to be as pricci said, Advantage had been gained and so scrum to team with the ball at the point of contact with you.

Superb account of your game though, not suprised you got some stick.

Follow what pricci said and I am sure you will become a better referee, it's not that difficult, but just takes a little time and patience.

N.B.

Remember Laws

Pablo

29-01-04, 17:01

If you learn well by test-taking (works for some!), then I highly recommend a visit to www.LearnRugbyLaws.com (www.learnrugbylaws.com) , which I've found to be a very useful resource since I discovered it. (In case this looks like a gratuitous plug, I have absolutely nothing to do with the LRL site, I just think it's very useful!)

After all, nobody ever complained about a ref for knowing the laws too well!

Robert Burns

29-01-04, 23:01

I agree this is an excellent resourse to test your knowledge, the link for it's also pinned in the general forum.

Red Munster

02-02-04, 10:02

http://www.irb.com/laws_regs/laws/index.cfm

Robert Burns

04-02-04, 00:02

http://www.irb.com/laws_regs/laws/index.cfm
I shall add this link too I think!

Davet

04-02-04, 14:02

Yeah, got to be as pricci said, Advantage had been gained and so scrum to team with the ball at the point of contact with you.

Not quite sure where the advantage was gained by the player with the ball running into the ref.

OK they scored a try - but the questions are surely;

1)Would they have scored that anyway?
2) Did the collision help the attackers
3) Did the referee get in the way of a potential tackler?